Sales•7 min read

How to Get Your First 100 Customers Using Social Listening

By Updately Team•2026-02-06

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction: The Toughest Challenge for SaaS Founders
  2. Step 1: Identify Your Ideal Customers
  3. Step 2: Choose the Right Social Listening Tools
  4. Step 3: Monitor Conversations in Real Time
  5. Step 4: Engage Authentically, Not Aggressively
  6. Step 5: Leverage Social Proof & UGC
  7. Step 6: Convert Conversations Into Customers
  8. Step 7: Optimize & Improve
  9. FAQ: Social Listening for Startups

Introduction: The Toughest Challenge for SaaS Founders

Getting your first 100 customers is one of the toughest challenges for SaaS founders. Instead of relying on expensive ads or cold outreach that gets ignored, social listening can help you find and engage with potential customers organically.

This guide will show you how to use social listening to drive customer acquisition and turn social media chatter into sales opportunities.

[!TIP] Ready to find your first lead in 60 seconds? Try Updately.ai for free and start listening where your customers hang out.

Step 1: Identify Your Ideal Customers

Start by defining your target audience. Who are they? What specific problems do they face daily?

For example, if you've built a LinkedIn outreach automation tool, your audience includes sales reps, recruiters, and business development professionals.

How to Find Relevant Conversations

Track keywords and phrases such as:

  • "Looking for a LinkedIn automation tool"
  • "Best way to send LinkedIn messages at scale"
  • "Any alternative to [competitor]?"

Monitor platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, and industry forums.

Example in Action: You set up an Updately alert for "LinkedIn automation" and find a Twitter thread where a founder complains about sending 100 manual messages per day. This is a high-intent lead waiting for your solution.

Step 2: Choose the Right Social Listening Tools

Instead of manually searching and wasting hours, use tools that automate alerts and surface relevant conversations.

  • Updately.ai – Best for B2B SaaS and startups. AI-powered filtering ensures you only see high-intent posts across Reddit, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
  • Brand24 – Good for broad brand monitoring and tracking competitor complaints.
  • Hootsuite – Useful for scheduling social media posts alongside monitoring.

Example in Action: A Reddit user posts: "What's the best LinkedIn outreach tool?" Updately alerts you via Slack within minutes, allowing you to be the first to respond.

Step 3: Monitor Conversations in Real Time

Set up custom alerts in Updately to track:

  • Competitor complaints: ("[Competitor] keeps failing for me—any alternatives?")
  • Industry questions: ("What's the best way to do X?")
  • Pain points: ("I'm tired of manually doing X")

Example in Action: A sales leader tweets: "LinkedIn's message limits are killing my outreach strategy. Any workarounds?" By responding with a non-promotional tip and subtly mentioning your tool, you position yourself as a helpful expert.

Step 4: Engage Authentically, Not Aggressively

The key to social selling is to help first and sell second. Reddit and Twitter communities have a high "spam radar."

How to Respond:

  • ❌ Wrong: "Check out my tool: [link]"
  • ✅ Right: "One way to solve this is by sequencing outreach over multiple days. We actually built a tool that automates this—happy to let you test it for free if it helps!"

By providing value first, you build trust with the entire community, not just the original poster.

Step 5: Leverage Social Proof & User-Generated Content

Encourage your early happy users to share their experiences. Retweet testimonials, share success stories, and engage with every mention of your brand.

Example in Action: A user tweets about how your SaaS saved them hours. You retweet it and add a quick link to a relevant Case Study.

Step 6: Convert Conversations Into Customers

Monitoring is just the beginning. To reach 100 customers, you need to follow through:

  • Track engaged leads and follow up in DMs with personal touches.
  • Offer an exclusive free trial or discount to social media users.
  • Keep the conversation going—people buy when they are ready, not necessarily when you are.

Example in Action: You follow up with the sales leader from Step 3: "Hey, did that workaround with the sequencing help? I'd love to set you up with a personal trial if you want to see how the automation handles those limits."

Step 7: Optimize & Improve

Social listening is a powerful feedback loop for product development.

  • Adjust your messaging based on the exact words customers use to describe their pain.
  • Identify new feature ideas based on frequent complaints about competitors.
  • Refine your targeting based on which platforms (Reddit vs. Twitter vs. LinkedIn) generate the most engaged leads.

FAQ: Social Listening

1. Is social listening just for big companies?

No. It's actually more valuable for early-stage SaaS because it helps you find real users without the massive ad budgets of incumbents.

2. How can I avoid being too "salesy"?

Focus on being a "consultant" rather than a "salesperson." Mention your product only when it is a direct solution to a problem being discussed.

3. Will I have to spend hours monitoring social media?

Not if you use the right tool. Updately.ai automates the noise-filtering, so you only get notified when a post matches your high-intent criteria.

4. What if I don't see immediate results?

Social listening is a relationship game. You might not convert every interaction into a customer today, but you're building a searchable history of being helpful, which attracts future users long after the thread is "cold."

5. How do I measure success?

Track the number of relevant conversations joined, the "leads" tagged in your CRM from social, and the eventual conversion rate of those specific interactions versus cold outreach.

Final Thoughts: Start Listening, Start Growing

Social listening is the highest ROI, lowest-cost strategy for acquiring your first 100 SaaS customers. If you consistently monitor conversations, engage authentically, and provide genuine value, you'll build the relationships that drive sustainable growth.

Start your Updately.ai free trial today and turn the web's chatter into your best acquisition channel.

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